When you consider how iOS 10 works, with just picking up the phone firing the screen (so you can see your notifications) that makes sense here, but the lack of a tactile click is a tough one to deal with – you’ll get used to it, but there’s no doubt that it’s nicer to feel a comforting press. It still houses the fingerprint scanner, but this doesn’t function in the same way as before. New home buttonĪpple hasn’t done away with the home button as some people predicted, but it has done something odd: made the button haptic, so that it vibrates under your finger, rather than clicking all the way in. Sadly, this means Space Gray is now dead, so you’re still slightly limited in your choicesĪnd the other big change: this thing is now water-resistant, with its IP67 rating meaning you can’t take it swimming, but you can fall in the pool and take it into the shower… if that’s your thing. Talking of colors, it’s nice to see the iPhone 7 now coming in Jet Black and just… Black, adding a new shade into the mix – and it’s probably the nicest of the lot. The movement of the antenna bands on the back is a nice touch though – there’s something pleasing about the way the back isn’t as broken-up any more, with a solid plate of color looking back at you… you almost wonder why this wasn’t done originally when the iPhone 6 emerged, but there are a lot of engineering feats that go on under the surface of smartphones that probably explain that pretty easily. There are multiple theories as to why Apple has done this, ranging from the conspiracy-based (the company is just doing it to make money from the license fee manufacturers have to pay to create Lightning port headphones) to the helpful (the space taken up by the headphone jack means a thinner phone, and more space for battery).Īpple claimed in its keynote that it had taken “courage” to get rid of the “ancient” port – whether that’s good enough remains to be seen. There are some big changes here, though, and let’s start with the biggest one: the loss of the headphone jack. The iPhone 7, like the 4, 5 and 6 before it, was supposed to radically change the way the iPhone looks however, the dimensions and screen size are nearly identical to last year’s model, meaning that if you plop a case on this phone you’ll struggle to tell the difference between phones from 20. When it comes to the look of the new phone, it might seem like Apple’s done very little to change the iPhone 7 design, and that’s true to a degree. If you’re thinking of queuing all night, take a blanket, okay? We don’t want you catching a cold. Whichever storage size you go for, the iPhone 7 release date has been predictably set for the week after the announcement, meaning you’ll be able to get your hands on one from September 17, with pre-orders starting September 9. The 32GB model will cost 32GB $649 (£539, AU$1,079), the 128GB $749 (£619, AU$1,229) and the high-end 256GB $849 (£699, AU$1,379)… but in fairness to Apple, this has matched the price ranges of previous iPhone launches, so the extra memory isn’t costing more money, and starts to put the debate over whether Apple should allow for expandable memory to bed, as internal storage is far more stable day to day. These are the 32GB model (thankfully the 16GB option, which was just too small to store today’s glut of large apps, is gone), a 128GB option and the top-of-the-range 256GB choice – which is pretty meaty, and unlikely to be filled by even the most ardent media-hoarder. The iPhone 7 price is pretty typical, with just three choices once more. So, again, we’re in the position of having to work out whether the upgrades to the new iPhone are worth the money, or whether you can save some cash and stick with the iPhone 6S – after all, for a lot of people there’s a certain status to owning a new iPhone, and without a radical shape change, the iPhone 7 doesn’t offer that upgrade. On the other hand, barring some slippage of the antenna bands on the rear of the phone, this looks remarkably similar to the iPhone 6 and 6S that preceded it. On the one hand, it’s now imbued with far superior sonic performance, a much better camera and a more pleasant-to-use screen – and now has no port to plug your headphones into. What’s new with the iPhone 7? Either a lot and very little, depending on what matters to you in a phone.
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